2009 Rhode Island Code
Title 45 - Towns and cities
CHAPTER 45-22.2 - Rhode Island Comprehensive Planning and Land Use Act
§ 45-22.2-11 - State technical and financial assistance.

SECTION 45-22.2-11

   § 45-22.2-11  State technical and financial assistance. – (a) There is established a program of technical and financial assistance for municipalities to encourage and facilitate the adoption and implementation of comprehensive planning throughout the state. The program is administered by the director.

   (b) The director shall develop and administer a grants program to provide financial assistance to municipalities for the preparation of comprehensive plans pursuant to this chapter.

   (c) Grants may be expended for any purpose directly related to the preparation of a municipal comprehensive plan including, without limitation, the conduct of surveys, inventories, and other data-gathering activities, the hiring of planning and other technical staff, the retention of planning consultants, contracts for planning, and related services, and other related purposes, in order to provide sufficient economies of scale and to build planning capacity at the municipal level.

   (d) The director shall establish a program of technical assistance to the various municipalities, utilizing its own staff and resources to assist municipalities in the development of a comprehensive plan. It is also a function of the director to establish a statewide data base for the use of the municipalities. The director also validates data established by the municipalities in the formulation of their comprehensive plans.

   (e) Financial assistance provided to each municipality, not exceeding one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars ($125,000), for the preparation of the comprehensive plan under this chapter, is apportioned among the municipalities by the director as follows:

   (1) Fifty percent (50%) of the total funding appropriated is apportioned equally among the thirty-nine (39) municipalities without regard to population size or total land area;

   (2) Twenty percent (20%) of the total funding appropriated is apportioned among the municipalities on the basis of their respective total land areas (including inland water bodies) as determined by the director; and

   (3) Thirty percent (30%) of the total funding appropriated is apportioned among the municipalities on the basis of their respective total populations (as established by the director based upon the most recent decennial federal revenue census data available).